‘Maya Angelou: And Still I Rise’ Documentary Wins Audience Award at AFI Docs

A documentary about famed poet and author, Maya Angelou titled, Maya Angelou: And Still I Rise, took home the audience award for best feature at the AFI Docs 2016 Film Festival, which featured 93 films form 30 different countries and concluded Sunday in Washington, D.C. and Silver Spring, MD.

In an interview with AFI Docs back in May, co-director Rita Coburn shares how she had approached Angelou about filming the documentary.

“Dr. Angelou was alive when we began filming and suggested many of the subjects, including Alice Windom, her roommate in Ghana,” she said. “We wanted people that knew her in a way that would capture her humanity: her son, close friend, people who would show her as a mother, a woman, a wife – areas about which the public would not be as knowledgeable.”

Directed by Rita Coburn and Bob Hercules, “the story is told by Angelou herself, along with a cast of contemporaries from her careers as actress, writer, poet and activist.” The film chronicles Angelou’s life from her youth in the Depression-era South through her rise to international prominence.

For the full interview with the directors on working with Maya Angelou, click here.

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